This quick little post is mostly about a bee that I rescued from the floor of the visitors centre on Thursday afternoon. He was very poorly and on his last legs but was still moving so I mixed up some sugar in a little warm water and encouraged him to take a drink. It took a little while to twig that...

Well, it's what they do! We have been graced by some early returning Arctic waders in recent weeks and the most popular amongst them have been the Whimbrel with their stripy heads, Gonzo bills and whistled calls.
Russ Sherriff had a great day yesterday and managed some quality images of these...

The rain may of stopped for a few days and the wind has swung south westerly so at least the temperature has risen slightly. Plenty of young birds out on the marsh. Not so much Lapwings and Redshanks now with all the fledging done but bucket loads of young Whitethroats, Reed and Sedge Warblers, more...

Not too bad a list for today out on the marsh and river Thames with a fair selection of waders including two Oystercatcher, 25 Black tailed Godwit, Curlew, Whimbrel, two Snipe,two Little ringed Plover, 4 Greenshank and three Dunlin. Ruth saw two Sandwich Tern down by the Barges and despite there being...

Clive "Waspy" Watts has been diligently searching out our Wasp Spiders and must have located over 200 by now and has witnessed some interesting behavior involving the diminutive males as they make their way with trepidation towards their potential love interest.
Last year Clive often saw...

The Late Night Opening will still be on tomorrow regardless of the weather as rain may bring in some birds BUT I suspect that by any stretch of the imagination that the Moth Night that was going to follow on afterwards will not be happening. Just have a look at the chart for the day below and I think...

Little Grebes are prolific breeders - they have to be as the mortality rate for such snack sized morsels is very high and it is not unusual for us to see broods still being brought off even into early October. As such there are still plenty of gigglers out there with attendant stripy humbugs and Elaine...

With the Kingfisher chicks obviously growing very fast, it has been interesting to note the increased variety of prey that both parents have been bringing. Gone are the first brood days of Stickleback followed by Stickleback followed possibly a Smooth Newt folllowed inevitably by a Stickleback.
So...

Just had to share this short video from Pat Hart of one of the new local juvenile Peregrines that came to play on Friday. A whopper of a bird and already very proficient at stopping on unsuspecting lunch! What was probably the mother of this bird had a more successful time of things over the Purfleet...

Last Friday I had a wonderfully relaxed two hour stroll around the marsh before we opened. Needless to say I had the place to myself and it was wonderfully warm and pleasant. Ornithologically it was fairly quiet although I did get some lovely views of the Bearded Tits, nine more early moving Siskins...

With some glorious days of late there has been a big increase in insect numbmers out on the marsh with the numbers of butterflies and dragonflies in particular going up.
Black Tailed Skimmers have been seen around the trail with their dusty blue bodies and green eyes while female Emperors have already...

So I asked for more images of wildlife on the Dragonfly Sculptures and yesterday it all went a bit mad down at the MDZ where not only were the Kingfishers busily using it as a staging post before entering the nest but they were getting increasingly agitated by our family of Turnstile Bridge Swallows...

Do you know a budding young nature presenter?
The RSPB and the Cairngorms National Park are running a Young Nature Presenter competition, which is open to 10 to 16-year-olds anywhere in the UK and boasts a fantastic prize.
Cairngorms Nature is looking for a Young Nature Presenter for 2016, someone...

For those of you who have already visited this week you may have noticed a few additions to the café area.
We are benefiting from some money from an external funding partner, who is keen to work with us to help make the reserve even more attractive to our varied visitors and as such we now...

Escaped last night for a walk around the trail after work. The weather was a little interesting but somehow I managed not to get too wet!
I popped into the MDZ and watched the Kingfishers for a while and a Little Egret was paddling around on the back edge shuffling those yellow feet to attract...

Within the last week we have already seen the beginnings of return wader passage with the Purfleet Scrape holding up to three each of Whimbrel and Green Sandpiper, along with Curlew, Ruff, both Ringed and our still local Little Ringed Plovers and a stunning flock of up to 35 Black-tailed Godwits , still...

Nope, not the one for the small humans but the Steve Hall designed metal dragonfly sculptures that are dotted around the marsh. As you will have seen on other posts, the Bearded Tits have delighted in letting their kids loose on the one at the Dragonfly Pool, where they can play and hone their hanging...

It is looking like the 2015 season will be our best so far for breeding Lapwing and Redshank. The predator fence has done a superb job and spot on water management has resulted in the population of both species almost doubling.
Lapwing - 61 pairs (38 last year), fledged 64 young which equals 1.05...

Hi everyone,
How are you?
Just to let you know that there may be some disturbance tomorrow... the people that maintain our clever windy windows are coming in tomorrow. All hides will be open all day , although one or two windows at a time maybe out of order.
Thanks!

It's been a funny old week so far, bouncing around between work, home and hospital to visit recovering Mum. Popped over RSPB Cliffe Pools and had a nice couple of hours escape on Monday evening. Lots of young waders and wildfowl including new broods of Pochard, Tufted Duck and Shelduck. Some of the...

A warm but not overly sunny day out on the reserve and Russ Sherriff was fortunate enough to get some more superb shots of the Bearded Tits as they played on their climbing frame. This has got to be the best year ever for the species at Rainham and hopefully we may get an obliging flock during the winter...